I feel I should post a "warning" sign about this fresh Oak

[PA. Woodsman]

I was outside taking advantage of a nice day here in PA. yesterday splitting wood, and the wife came out to tell me that a buddy of mine that works for the borough left me a message that there is a TON of wood up at the compost site because they are clearing lots of trees to expand the place. He said "it's Oak and Hickory" which is great! Well, later in the day I saw my neighbor who also works for the borough, talked to him about it and he said it's ALL Oak, fresh cut. I of course told him about it taking forever for it to dry out, and how some of you fellas even wait 3 years to burn it, and the look on his face was the look of "wow, really?" lol....I also called and left my buddy a "thank you" message for letting me know about it, and also told him "this stuff takes forever to dry out; I hope no one thinks they can split it now and burn it 9 months from now because they're going to be VERY disapointed!". I feel like posting a "warning" sign right next to it saying "warning-this wood takes years to dry out; do not use this Winter!", but I'm sure that some will try to use it this year yet....but I can't control other people so hopefully they'll already know that, but some won't and will learn a hard lesson.

Anyways, there's LOTS of fresh Oak at the Emmaus, PA. compost site!

 

[xman23]

Where is Emmaus, near me in Lackawaxen PA. Yes lets get down there and put up signs "Warning, This Wood Bad"

 

[Osagebndr]

I know I learned the hard way, had 2 yr old stuff figured it was good( didn't have a mm at the time) ended up rolling it around in the stove to get it too burn. Takes 3 yrs for some of it to dry . If you got the storage I'd. Post the sign and take it home to dry when it's dry it's awesome.

 

[gzecc]

Sometimes even oak only dries in one year. Depends on the state of the tree when it was taken down. Some have been dead for years, some hollowed out, some not. Just can't assume without seeing it.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

I burned a few cords of white oak this winter that were only seasoned one year. They burned great. July was scorchingly hot, though. Maybe that helped dry it out. I've been stacking red and white oak all weekend, and I'm hoping I can get some use next winter. If not, it will have to wait. But I don't buy into the "3 year seasoning" meme.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I burned a few cords of white oak this winter that were only seasoned one year. They burned great. July was scorchingly hot, though. Maybe that helped dry it out. I've been stacking red and white oak all weekend, and I'm hoping I can get some use next winter. If not, it will have to wait. But I don't buy into the "3 year seasoning" meme.

This is an outrage. It just burns more efficiently the longer oak seasons. I notice a difference but that's just me.

 

[mark cline]

pa woodsman, you should take as much of the oak and hickory as possible to prevent the disappointment that others will inflict on themselves by trying to burn it too soon .You would be doing a great service to everybody if you removed all that nasty wet wood , if I were closer , I would help you in the name of humanity to say the least.

 

[red oak]

I bet that some of the people taking it will try to burn it in the next month. I know many people are running short of wood at this point in the winter.

 

[Osagebndr]

I know of a lot of people running short rite now red oak. Never seems to stop being cold for sure. We have a forestry 20 min from the house at $3 a truck load ( I can get a r ick and a half on the truck unsplit) for wood that's been down for 2 yrs or more its hard to beat. Maybe they should try a local nursery to get wood some grind it for mulch in the spring.

 

[Archer39]

Can anyone come and pick it up or do you need to live in the borough? I live about 30 mins from there.

 

[splitoak]

I dont have anything to back this up but in my experience(which is limited..lol)..this is my first year burning and my wood is not the greatest..burning all oak i feel like a stove with burn tubes is more forgiving to moisture content to an extent than a stove with a catalyst..i have no way to prove this just my experience..i had good stove top temps and 5-6 hr burn times..center stone onaverage 470-600..

 

[Osagebndr]

I have an old stove and can tell that it has a little too much mc , but mine was already pretty well seasoned when I started burning it and has come down too tolerable mc . Cut and spli it ASAP get it drying probably be alright

 

[MJFlores]

I don't know, None of mine ever sits more than 6 or 7 months in the sun.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Can anyone come and pick it up or do you need to live in the borough? I live about 30 mins from there.

You have to live in Emmaus and they do card people. They stop you at what I call "Checkpoint Charlie" and ask to see your ID and "ofifcial" compost site card.

 

[bholler]

This is an outrage. It just burns more efficiently the longer oak seasons. I notice a difference but that's just me.

I regularly get oak to 20% or less in a year. It depends on lots of things like condition of the wood to begin with the size of the splits how it is stacked how hot it is how humid it is. I have never had oak take more tan 2 years to get below 20% but that is me

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Well the compost site officially opened today, and I took a run up there before work, cruised through to take a look at this "monster" motherload of Oak that I keep hearing about, and there were some huge crazy-assed shaped pieces in the firewood pile and that was it-they hauled the nice, big trunks back out of the way with a sign on that says "do not take, B.O.E. (Borough of Emmaus)! So if you were planning on going up there it's not worth your time; the gnarly, crazy pieces that are up there would take you a long time and a lot of work to get anything good out of them.

I'm thinking they let the Borough workers go in there before it opened and take what they wanted. It'll be interesting to see when and if they bring more out what happens....

 

[ChadD]

I had 2 red oak trees taken down exactly 1 year ago that I immediately cut split and stacked. I re split 10 pieces today and they are ranging from 20-25% moisture content. This 3 year seasoning thing definitely didn't apply to me either here in CT.

 

[smokedragon]

you should take as much of the oak and hickory as possible to prevent the disappointment that others will inflict on themselves by trying to burn it too soon .You would be doing a great service to everybody if you removed all that nasty wet wood , if I were closer , I would help you in the name of humanity to say the least.

Ditto

 

[weatherguy]

I had 2 red oak trees taken down exactly 1 year ago that I immediately cut split and stacked. I re split 10 pieces today and they are ranging from 20-25% moisture content. This 3 year seasoning thing definitely didn't apply to me either here in CT.

I usually get oak down to 20% in two years too, as long as I get it split early in the year (march/april).